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Department of Physics & Astronomy
Greetings Alumni & Friends!
Spring 2019
Last fall, we welcomed Dr. Jifa Tian to the department. Jifa joined us as an Assistant
News from the Professor and he’s accompanied by his wife Fei Tan and daughter Cindy. He is an
expert on experimental condensed matter physics focusing on quantum behaviors
High Plains of electrons in novel topological materials, 2D materials and their heterostructures.
He obtained his PhD from the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences & Institute
of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences and was a postdoctoral research associate
at Purdue University and the National Institute of Standards and Technology before
he came to Laramie. He and his graduate students are busy building up a state-
of-the-art laboratory where they will be able to look at how electrons behave at a
temperature below 2 Kelvin and in a magnetic field of 12 Tesla.
Dr. Aysenur Bicer joined the Department as an assistant lecturer starting in January
2019. She obtained her PhD degree from Texas A&M University. She will be mostly
teaching intro-level general physics and is also very much interested in interacting
with our majors and taking an active role in outreach and as an advisor. Aysenur is
married to Ali Bicer, who is an assistant professor in the School of Teacher Education
at UW. Aysenur and Ali have five children ages from 3 to 9. Aysenur’s hobbies are
reading books, watching science-fiction movies, and travelling around the world.
We also welcome Jessica Andrews, Kathy Webb and Ashely Vannelli in our shared
Business Office this year. Jessica has been working in accounting for a number of
years prior to joining UW, and she is excited to be a part of the shared business staff
center. She has 3 boys, Aaron, Toby, and Nathan. Her husband is Peter and he is the
head mechanic for Pete Lien. She is an Accountant and the manager of the Shared
Business Office of Department of Physics & and Astronomy and Department of
Chemistry.
Kathy Webb started at the end of February 2018. She has also worked for UW
Accounts Receivable and UW Apartments. Before moving to Laramie with her family
in 2007, she worked in Accounts Payable at Washington State University for 8 years.
Kathy along with her husband, Eric, loves to travel and spend time visiting their 2
daughters and son along with 2 granddaughters and a grandson born in February.
Ashley Vannelli is our newest Office Associate. She just started after the New Year.
Before coming to the shared Business Office, Ashley worked as a Human Resources
Specialist in the UW Human Resources department. Ashley has lived in Laramie
since 2004. She is also a University of Wyoming alum and graduated with bachelor’s
degrees in Political Science and Philosophy in 2009. Her hobbies include various
outdoor activities, playing card games, and reading.
We are thrilled to have all of them here. Indeed, they have been so critical to
COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES
Department of Physics & Astronomy the research, education and service mission and the smooth operation of the
(307) 766-6150 Department. continued
physics@uwyo.edu
UWYO.EDU/PHYSICS
Tom Grandy, Professor of Physics Emeritus and former Head of the Department, passed away on December 27, 2018. He was 85.
Dr. Grandy was a great man and great physicist. We deeply appreciate his contributions and leadership as a faculty member and
the Department Head. He will be remembered by us all.
The Department is doing very well. We had a large increase in the freshmen and transfer students this fall. A number of our stu-
dents were given prestigious awards for their academic and research achievements, not to mention that the University of Wyoming
chapter of the Society of Physics Students (SPS) has earned the designation of a SPS Notable Chapter! Please see below for a com-
plete list of the student awards and honors.
P&A faculty continues to build a strong record of excellent grantsmanship. Many of our faculty members have received new federal
grants. Faculty members were also awarded various internal grants from the A&S College, UW Academic Affairs, and School of
Energy Resources. These grant will allow us to continue to support students to gain research experience.
Please let us know about your career path (physics@uwyo.edu). We post these updates on our alumni page http://physics.uwyo.
edu/Alumni/alumni.html. Also, please send us your email if you are interested in receiving an electronic copy of these newsletters.
Jinke Tang
Department Head
Department News:
After stepping down from the Department Head and taking a break for a semester, Danny is serving as the Associate
Dean for the College of Arts & Science. He started his new job in January 2018.
Connor O’Malley left us at the end of December. He has taught most of
the algebra-based general physics for us for the last two and half years. We
thank him for his service and wish him the best.
Congratulations to Jessica Sutter, Dylan Kloster and Riley Jordan! Their
team was selected as participants in the 2018 John P. Ellbogen Faculty
Summer Institute on Developing Research through the Scholarship of
Teaching and Learning. The Summer Institute was held from May 21 to 23,
2018.
Congratulations to Hannah and the SPS leadership team (Nick Trimble,
Aman Kar, Ryan Parziale, and Jesse Winner) for earning the designation of a
Society of Physics Students Notable Chapter!
Noah Cowper and Logan Jensen were selected as the 2018 Outstanding
Graduates of the College of Arts and Sciences. Congratulations!
Jesse Winner, William Scougale, Anh Nguyen and Bryant Jerome were
awarded Cinnamon Undergraduate Scholarship. Super!
Brad Lyke, David King and Riley Jordan received Outstanding TA awards.
Congrats!
A&S Board of Visitors Student Service awards were presented to Dani Schur-
hammer and Jordan Turner. Thank you guys!
Aman Kar was selected to receive the SPS Leadership Scholarship!
Bill Rice demonstrates the art of making
Graduate student Aaron Wang received an Outstanding Poster award at the ice cream at the WIRO Open House
Front Range Advanced Magnetics Symposium (FRAMS) held in Colorado
Spring in August. Cool!
Ryan Parziale was selected to serve on the A&S Curriculum Committee as a
student member. Thank you! 2
Graduate students Henry Wladkowski, Riley Jordan and Robert Nielsen were awarded A&S Dean’s Graduate Scholars
for 2018 -19. Way to go!
Undergraduate student Rachel Tenney won one of the outstanding poster awards at the APS four corners section
meeting held in Salt Lake City. You can see her poster on the second floor hall way.
Professor Rudi Michalak took 13 undergrads to the APS Four Corners Section Meeting in Salt Lake City in October.
Students gave 3 presentations at the conference.
Students attending the American Physical Society Four Corners Section meeting in Salt Lake City, UT
Three cheers for TeYu Chien who received an A&S Extraordinary Merit in Research Award in 2018!
Congratulations to Hannah! She has been elected to the American Astronomical Society Board of Trustees for 2019-
2022, term that begins in June.
Chip and Jim Verley received the PIE award that promotes intellectual engagement in students’ first year. We appreci-
ate your effort!
Great news! P&A’s assessment level has been elevated to Tier 1 status for both the BS and PhD programs. We have
implemented several assessment methods for our programs and continued to collect relevant data. Let’s thank Chip
for leading this effort.
Major Grants Received by Faculty Last Year:
Shawna McBride is the lead PI on a National Science Foundation grant of
$649,991 entitled “Combining Project-based Learning, Citizen Science, and
Authentic Research to Enhance the Success of STEM and STEM Education
Majors”.
Danny Dale received a NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship! The fel-
lowship will be given to Jessica Sutter and is renewable for a total of three
years with a total of $135,000.
3
Congratulations to Mike Brotherton for a new $375K 5-year NSF grant! Adam is a Co-PI on the grant so let’s congratu-
late Adam as well!
Mike B has also just secured a $83,671 NASA Chandra
Cycle 20 observing grant for studying “X-ray Properties of
Extreme Super Eddington Accreting Massive Black Holes”.
Adam has a new three-year $205K DOE grant entitled:
“EBOSS AND DESI: LSS CATALOGS, TARGETING AND SPEC-
SPECTROSCOPIC CONTAMINANTS”.
Danny Dale received $72K from NASA’s Hubble Space
Telescope for “PHANGSHST: Linking Stars and Gas th
throughout the Scales of Star Formation.”
Congratulations to Danny (PI) and Chip (Co-PI) for getting
the renewal of their NSF astronomy REU grant (3
(3 years & $260k)!
Three cheers to Chip for recently striking up a relationship with a Jackson resident during a Rotary Club visit there. This
gentleman was excited by what Chip had to say about the outreach we do in our department and across campus. He
has committed $50k/year for 5 years toward a STEM academy (see story on the Teton STEM Academy).
Bill Rice was awarded by the Ellbogen Foundation a $25K outreach grant for the Science Kitchen for 2018-2019.
Chip Kobulnicky, Samantha Ogden, Megan Candelaria & Shawna McBride received an InReach grant - STEM Scholars
Saturday 2019. A&S will provide a $4,000 support for the project.
Shawna McBride, Megan Candelaria, Samantha Ogden & Michele Turner also received an InReach grant - 2019 Women
in STEM Conference with a $4,000 support from the A&S.
Bill Rice received two A&S Seed Grants this year ($25K each). One is as PI to observe quantum spin liquids in two-di-
mensional magnetic nanoporous frameworks, and the other is a Co-PI with Brian Leonard in Chemistry to study novel
layered two dimensional (2D) tungsten oxychloride materials with tunable properties.
Chip has again secured a $10K domestic graduate recruiting initiative award from the Academic Affairs. Thank you,
Chip.
Bill Rice and Jinke Tang have both received additional funding from the School of Energy Resources to work on its
state funded Carbon Engineering Initiative.
Congratulations to Chip and Hannah for getting a
“Women in Graduate Education GA GA award”!
Chip, Bill and Danny received an Under-Represented
Domestic Minorities (URDM) GA award. Congratula-
tions!
Graduate student Jessica Sutter is one of eight astrophysics students across
the country to receive a NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship. (Story
adapted from UW Institutional Communications)
Jessica Sutter, a third-year graduate student in the University of Wyoming’s
Department of Physics and Astronomy, is one of eight astrophysics students,
out of 177 applicants, to receive a $45,000 NASA Earth and Space Science Fel-
lowship (NESSF).
Sutter’s faculty adviser, Professor Daniel Dale, will serve as the principal inves-
tigator of their project, “Determining the Nature of [CII] 158 Micron Emission:
An Improved Star Formation Rate Indicator.”
Sutter’s research focuses on the rate at which galaxies form new stars, and that information, ultimately, will help astronomers
replay the events that created our own Milky Way galaxy.
“To do this research, I use data from the Herschel Space Telescope to measure how bright nearby galaxies are in a specific wave-
length or ‘color’ of light,” explains Sutter, who is from Portland, Ore. “By determining what portion of the light I observe is
produced by very young stars, which also are the brightest and hottest stars, I can estimate how many new stars a galaxy is
forming -- or the star formation rate of the galaxy.”
Essentially, astronomers measure two types of galaxies in the universe. Spiral galaxies comprise a flat, rotating disk with several
young stars, while elliptical galaxies are football-shaped and have very few young stars. Among the issues Sutter aims to ad-
dress is why elliptical galaxies form fewer stars than do spiral galaxies.
Using tools including Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), a radio telescope that is tuned to higher-frequency
radio waves (nearly as high as infrared light), Sutter will be able to detect light from galaxies up to 30 billion light years away.
“Light takes time to travel from these very distant galaxies, so looking at far-away sources is similar to looking back in time to
what galaxies were like near the beginning of universal history,” Sutter says.
“Sutter’s work should break new ground in applying what we learn from nearby galaxies to the most distant reaches of the uni-
verse,” Dale says.
These NESSF “training grants” go to universities and educational institutions to ensure continued preparation of a highly quali-
fied workforce in disciplines that are needed to achieve NASA’s scientific goals.
Depending on successful academic performance, research progress, the faculty adviser’s recommendation and availability of
funding, NESSF grants may be renewed for no more than two additional years.
Of the $45,000 award, $35,000 is designated as a student stipend; $5,000 is allowed for student expenses, including travel that
supports the research; and $5,000 goes to university expenses. Sutter will use a portion of the grant money to attend confer-
ences and meet with fellow astronomers who also study star formation.
“Prestigious graduate fellowships, like these, allow talented students to focus on their research,” Dale says. “Graduate fellows do
not need to expend additional energies seeking support for their graduate schooling, which, in turn, results in higher-quality
work and a shorter time to finish their degree.”
(pictured from left to right - top)
Noah Cowper
Zhuangen Fu
Cristilyn Gardner
Harrison Leiendecker
(pictured from left to right-bottom)
Ashley Piccone
Jason Rothenberg
Piumi Samarawickrama
Andrei Zadorozhnyi
This year we welcomed 8 new grad students.
The Ivers Donate to P&A Again!
On October 17, 2018, faculty and students hosted Patrick and Nora Ivers. They visited the labs and chatted with faculty
and students for 2.5 hours in the afternoon. They were shown the exciting programs and projects currently taking place in
Physics & Astronomy at UW along with the faculty and students involved. After they made a major donation to the Depart-
ment last year, the Ivers have just decided to give another $25K contribution to us. It will be used to support our research
effort. To honor their wish, we will use the $25K donation as matching grant for faculty research proposals. Their generous
donation will greatly enhance our research and graduate education. Thank you, Patrick and Nora!
The University of Wyoming Teton STEM Academy
Teton STEM Academy opened this summer! served 21 middle school youth from across Wyoming in
its inaugural summer. Made possible by a generous gift
from an anonymous donor in Teton County, the Acad-
emy is a free residential camp on the UW campus offer-
ing hands on learning on the fundamental principles
of physical & life sciences, engineering, & mathematics.
Prof. Chip Kobulnicky is the executive director, assisted
by camp directors Samantha Ogden (UW’s planetarium
director) and Megan Candelaria (faculty from Laramie
County Community College). Four UW science ma-
jors, serving as counselors, and three in-service school
teachers delivered a rich interdisciplinary curriculum.
Camp activities centered around the theme of planning
a journey to Mars. Learning modules included analyz-
ing chemical elements, constructing & using small
telescopes, testing soil for signs of life, extracting DNA
from cells, programming robots, and field excursions
to the local forest and UW’s research telescopes. The
camp will continue in July 2019, serving rising 10th &
11th grade students who are Wyoming residents.
Thank you to our recent donors!
American Astronomical Society, David Barnaby & Jennifer Barnaby, Boys and Girls Clubs of Carbon County, Burnett Family
Charitable Fdn. Inc., Danny Dale & Kim Dale, Robert J. Davis, Robert E. Ellefson, Terrence F. Flower & Margaret A. Flower, Paul
Henry, Robert A. Hermann & Julie Johnston Hermann, Dennis Hollenbeck, Frank Jones & Sara Kortum, W. F. Klawiter, Jr. & Janet
C. Klawiter, Larry Kroger, Roland H. Lamberson, Harry Lawroski & Mary Ann Lawroski, Lowell W. Hill, Mark Manley & Mari Takai-
Manley, Vonda McIntyre, Ivy R. McLeod, Bob Reeves & Betty Reeves, William L. Roberts, Roy C. Sarver, Samuel R. Schrinar, Jr.,
Terry A. Scott & Jean M. Meyer-Scott, Jinke Tang & Hsiaopo Cheng, Jerry Tastad, Tata Chemicals North America, David Wensky &
Afaf Wensky, Ronald Wilson & Margaret Wilson.
If you would like to donate, please visit
http://uw.uwyo.edu/s/1254/14/interior.aspx?sid=1254&gid=1&pgid=313.
Physics & Astronomy
Dept 3905
1000 E. University
Laramie, WY 82071
7
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